Affliction

This copy has been SIGNED by Russell Banks on the title page. As Elmore Leonard says: "It begins, 'This is the story of my brother's strange criminal behavior.' and will not let go of you, I swear, until you turn the last page." The story of Wade Whitehouse, like its subject, male violence, is a commonplace one. Because he is a part-time policeman his sudden rampage might make its way onto the back page of a newspaper: a brief, cryptic flare of sensationalism against the gray background of a New Hampshire mill town. But in Russell Banks's hamds Wade Whitehouse becomes as memorable and meaningful as Faulkner's Joe Christmas.